Missouri football

More substantive results this week than all previous weeks combined — at least, that’s how it feels — with three games matching ranked teams and seven ranked teams losing.

* I moved Oregon over Clemson and into the No. 2 position following the victory at Washington, which stands as the second-best win by any team thus far (behind Alabama’s victory at Texas A&M).

* The biggest climber: Missouri.

The Tigers weren’t on the ballot last week (five cupcake wins) but are slotted No. 7 this week after winning at Georgia.

Yes, that’s a big jump. But big jumps and drops are the only way to offset the inherent inaccuracies in the preseason polls. (If all moves are incremental, the end-of-season ballots can be tainted by August misconceptions.)

And yes, Georgia is riddled with injuries, but a road win over a top-10 opponent is a road win over a top-10 opponent. And the Tigers have no blemishes to offset a big jump.

Quarterback James Franklin’s injury will make it difficult to hold the top-10 position. If the Tigers start losing, their placement will be adjusted accordingly.

The Hotline isn’t big on visuals, but I couldn’t resist this one. It comes courtesy of Lost Lettermen and, if you have been following the fall of Arkansas football, speaks for itself.

Yes, that’s a real marquee, with very real sarcasm directed at Arkansas from a car dealership in Joplin, Missouri.

It followed the Hogs’ 52-0 loss to Alabama … which followed a home loss to Louisiana Monroe … which followed reports that interim coach John L. Smith is bankrupt … which followed Smith being named interim coach … which followed Bobby Petrino’s dismissal for personal indiscretions with an Arkansas employee … which followed, by many years, Petrino getting married and having four children.

The only way the situation could be worse for the Hogs: If they’d lost 52-0 to LSU.

* Slotted Auburn into the top spot for the third consecutive week. Despite a November game against Chattanooga, the Tigers still have the best resume in the land.

* Moved LSU into the 2-hole, up four places (and ahead of Oregon) after its win over Alabama.

The Ducks could very well be the best team in the country. But the rankings aren’t supposed to be projections; they’re supposed to be reflective — hence the AP’s No. 1 voting guideline: base your ballots on results.

And I’ve never cared much for style points, especially when they so often come against second-rate competition. (For instance: New Mexico, Portland State, Tennessee, UCLA, Washington and Washington State, which have a combined record of 14-41.)

As I’ve written many times before, I place heavy emphasis on quality wins — and, to a certain extent, quality losses. That formula has always seemed like the best way to account for what can be extreme differences in strength of schedule.

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There were several substantive games to assess this week, but I spent the vast majority of my time on one issue: Boise State vs. Virginia Tech vs. James Madison.

It’s a fascinating and perplexing situation, and a rare one: The No. 1 team on my ballot and a FCS team both beat the same ranked FBS foe within six days.

The first thing I did was call the AP to confirm that there had been no changes to their policy that FCS were eligible to be ranked. (Confirmation given.) Then I began evaluating all the angles:

* If you’re going purely on results, you could argue that JMU deserves to be ranked higher than Boise State this week.

After all, JMU beat VaTech by more points than did Boise State and beat VaTech in Blacksburg, whereas Boise State’s win was on a (semi) neutral field.

Quick recap of my method and how it applies this week and in future weeks.

My preseason poll is based on where I think teams will finish (because if your No. 1 is your best team, and hence your national champ/end-of-season No. 1, then doesn’t it follow that every slot should be a projection of the final ranking?).

Once the season starts, I begin adjusting the poll based on results, per the AP’s directive. But that’s a lengthy process. Because of the schedules, it takes time — more than it should — for 25 teams to play quality opponents.

This week, for instance, there were only three games matching AP top-25 teams against each other: Boise State-VaTech, Oregon State-TCU and LSU-North Carolina, and I’m not sure the last one should count given the situation in Chapel Hill.

A few poll-related housekeeping matters before we get to the ballot (and a review of my voting philosophy):

* Voters were required to submit their ballots by Aug. 1, with the preseason poll scheduled for release by the AP on Aug. 16.

* Ballots are due Sunday (9 am Pacific) throughout the season, with two exceptions: Week One, because of the Monday games (no NFL that weekend), and the final poll, which is due immediately after the National Championship Game.